World War 2 Weapons – Small Arms

This page is intended to provide the reader with a brief overview of the small arms used by the Canadian Forces during the World War II.

Manufactured in England by the firm of Webley & Scott, the MK VI was first introduced in 1915. The Webley was the standard side arm of Canadian and British troops in the last half of World War I. Tough and reliable it gave excellent service and was manufactured in huge quantities. Although officially replaced by WWII it continued to be issued until stocks ran out.

Manufactured in England by Enfield, this pistol is basically a scaled down version of the Webley & Scott Mk VI.

Designed by the American John Browning, this weapon was put into production with Fabrique National of Belgium in 1935. When the Germans overran the factory in 1940 the Belgian engineers managed to smuggle the plans to England, and from there they were sent to Canada. The Pistol was put into production by the John Inglis company of Toronto. First production was for the Chinese Nationalist Army, but it was then adopted by the Canadian army in 1944. The GP-35 was and still is one of the best weapons of it’s type.

Manufactured in England by the firm of Sterling, the Lanchester was basically a copy of the German Maschinenpistole 1928. Obsolete by the standards of the 1940s it was chosen because the British knew it was a design that worked well. Sterling incorporated a few small changes to the original weapon. A new stock very like that of the short, magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifle and a brass magazine housing. A bayonet lug for the No I bayonet was fitted to the Mark I Lanchesters, but removed in the Mark II. Some Canadian soldiers were issued with Lanchesters, but I have not been able to determine the details of their service.

Designed by the American John Thompson and manufactured in the U.S.A. the Thompson or Tommy Gun is perhaps the most famous sub-machinegun of all time. In late 1939 the British and French governments ordered over 130000 guns; shortly after this the US government ordered 20450. The gun being manufactured in 1940 was the M1928A1, the service version of the M1921. It was a expensive weapon, the contract price to the French being $250, though volume production soon brought the price down to $70. Early in 1942 a simplified Thompson appeared known as the M1 Eventually 1750000 complete guns, plus sufficient spares to make another 250000, were made during the war.

The Thompson submachine-gun was to be found in all theatres of war and it became legendary for its absolute reliability, accuracy and resistance to hard conditions. The Thompson M1928 and M1A1 was issued to the 1st Canadian Infantry Division for the Italian campaign.

In 1940 the British were in desperate need of huge numbers of cheep and simple weapons. The only submachine-guns available at that time were US Thompsons, and though a hurried effort had produced the Lanchester from the German MP 28 this was too expensive and time consuming to make in quantity. In January 1941 a Major Sheperd and Mr Turpin who worked for the Design Department of the Royal Small Arms Factory came up with the Sten MK I. This was a much simplified Lanchester, coupled with some ideas from a captured German MP 40; in particular the manufacturing processes of the MP 40 were adapted to the new weapon and stampings and components that could be subcontracted in their entirety were used to the full.

The resulting gun was simple,light,compact and extremely crude; but it worked rreasonable well; and it set the pattern for the 3 or 4 million which followed. The first production models were turned out from BSA in the late summer of 1941 and from then on by both BSA in Birmingham and Enfleld. The Mark I was soon replaced by the much simplified Mark II. A Canadian Manufactured version of the Sten MK II became the standard issue sub machine gun for Canadian forces in June 1943 although some Canadian troops had used British Sten guns at Dieppe in 1942. The Canadian Sten was built to a higher standard than its British counterpart but it was nevertheless a crude weapon.

A military version of the Canadian designed and built hunting rifle, developed by Sir Charles Ross based on the 1890 mannlicher. At the insistence of Sir Sam Hughes the Ross MK II was adopted by the Canadian militia in 1901 despite the fact it had been rejected as unsuitable for military service by the British War Office, the U. S. Army, and the North West Mounted Police.

The MK II proved so problematic it was withdrawn in 1906 to be replaced by the MK III. Although extremely accurate the Ross was a poor combat weapon prone to jam during rapid fire (during combat in WWI soldiers would resort to kicking the bolt open) and if assembled incorrectly the bolt could be blown back into the shooter’s face causing serious injury.

Canadian soldiers hated the Ross and were only too willing to grab a British Lee-Enfield rifle (usually from a dead British soldier) at the first opportunity. At the insistence of the British the Ross was withdrawn in 1916 to be replaced with the Lee-Enfield MK III. A small number were retained for sniping, a task for which their accuracy made them ideal the rest being placed in storage. After abandoning the Ross rifle the Canadian government expropriated the plant located in Quebec City and paid Sir Charles Ross 2 million dollars.

During WWII the Ross was to find a new lease on life. In the first years of the war Canada and Britain were desperately short of weapons of all types. In desperation 75,000 Ross rifles were shipped to Britain to arm the Home Guard, thousands more were used for training Canadian soldiers here in Canada.

After the Boer War the British decided that they needed a universal short rifle. The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield MK II appeared in 1907 and the MK III a few years later. Arguably the best bolt action military rifle of all time its fast smooth action allowing 15 aimed shots per minute. Millions were produced and they served superbly thoroughly the world. The Lee-Enfield MK III entered Canadian service in 1916 as a replacement for the Ross.

The Lee-Enfield MK III was still in Canadian service at the outbreak of WWII. They saw service at Hong Kong and Dieppe and were used in training for the duration of the war. The MK III was gradually replaced by the MK 4 starting in 1941 but it continued to occasionally show up on the battle lines right up until 1945.

Developed by the British in 1928 the Lee-Enfield MK 4 was a simplified version of the MK III. The MK 4 had new sights and a revised front end. It entered production in 1941 and would remain Canada’s primary battle rifle until the mid 1950s

Developed in 1910 the Lewis Light Machine Gun was adopted by the British Army in 1915 as a source of light automatic firepower that could be carried and operated by one man. Although somewhat delicate and prone to jam in the dirty conditions of trench warfare the Lewis was an effective weapon that continued to serve in huge numbers with British and Canadian troops throughout World War 1 and into the opening stages of World War 2.

In the early 1930s the British Army was looking for a new machine-gun to replace the Lewis, which had been in service since 1915 and which was a bit heavy and complicated. In 1932 trials we held to decide on a new model, The winner was the new Czech ZB vz/26 light machine-gun.

The British required a number of changes to the gun before accepting it. The most significant being a change to the standard .303-in (7.7-mm) rimmed cartridge. Other minor changes were made at the same time, including a new butt, a shorter barrel, removal of the barrel-cooling fins and a change to the gas block.

Manufactured at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, The Bren required very sophisticated machining and it took until July 1938 to get production up to full swing at 300 per month, and it stayed at about 400 per month throughout World War II. The name Bren was derived from a combination of Brno and Enfield. The Enfield Factory was the only British factory tooled up for the gun, though after 1943 the firm of John Inglis in Toronto Canada was also mass-producing Bren guns. The Bren had been approved in Canada in 1936 but it was slow to be put into production. Many Canadian-made Bren guns were supplied to Chiang Kal-Shek’s Chinese army.

The Bren is an excellent example of a light machine-gun, being simple, strong, accurate and easy to fire, The rate of fire is quite slow and the gun can be controlled easily by a standing man. It is also remarkably reliable.

The Bren was the standard light machine-gun of the Canadian forces throughout the Second World War and for many years afterwards.

Named for the British company which manufactured it the Vickers was developed in 1912 as an improved version of the Maxim gun. Lighter and stronger than the Maxim the Vickers was still a heavy weapon by today’s standards. At 62lb it required a crew of 6 men to carry the gun, its tripod and the water for its cooling jacket and a further 16 for the ammunition. Extremely tough and reliable the Vickers was one of the best weapons of its class ever produced. The Vickers served the Canadian Army in WWI, WWII, and Korea.

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